Tennessee vs Gonzaga

The annual "neutral site" Battle of Seattle boomeranged in the faces of the Zags. Granted the Zags are a team in transition with Heyvelt and Stephen Gray returning to the line-up and the Tennessee Vols are just starting to heat up with the addition of JP Prince and the Orange Revolution.

Pearl, an avid fish-seller at Seattle's fish-market (?), confused and exposed the "soft" Zags with his frenetic style of play. The Zags have three tough cookies (Pendo, Pargo and Chia-Pet-hair-Bouldin), but the rest of their talented players are either too young or not tough enough. Remember how the Zags got manhandled in the NCAAs by Wyoming, UCLA, Nevada, etc, etc, etc?

But the Zags found their mojo and made a furious comeback. Mark Few can hope that performances like that will be ...marked as ...few in the team's record books :)

Pargo was clearly bothered by the crazy Vols style of play, and the good news for the Zags is that the little kid (Ravioli) has graduated otherwise he would have had 20 turnovers in this game.

The good news for the Zags is that this should only be a transition period until Heytvelt returns to form and mushroom remain frozen ;-) Gonzaga's record is not that bad, although not as impressive as previous years. Nevertheless you have to give them credit for the tough schedule - they beat UConn in the land of clam chowder soup, they lost to Oklahoma in their home state, they lost to Wazoo in a close regional rivarly game, and to Bob Knight in Alaska. The losses are not bad, it's just that there isn't the high profile win in there, and it doesn't look like there's gonna be one - unless they "steal" one in ElvisVille in 2008.

So this would raise the question, how do you evaluate the Zags as an at-large team? Because I certainly value a tough but less pretty record than a record paved with cupcakes (Clemson, Pitt, Syracuse, UConn, etc).

The Vols may be finally starting to play to their pre-season potential. They looked like it for the most part of the Zags game - let's not forget this was a road game for them, in front of a pro-Zags crowd in GrungeVille.

More on this game from Zag-fan blog La Rev.